Many venues employ jackpot controllers for awarding jackpots to one of or more of a plurality of gaming machines participating in the jackpot. Typically, a portion of turnover on each gaming machine is forwarded to a jackpot controller as a contribution. That is, part of each wager goes towards the jackpot. The technique can be extended to a so called wide area jackpot where gaming machines from a number of different venues contribute to a single jackpot pool.
One common way of awarding a jackpot is a so called mystery jackpot where a trigger value, generally in a prize range, is randomly selected and stored by the jackpot controller. The jackpot controller determines to award the jackpot prized when the contributions cause the value of the jackpot pool to reach the trigger value.
A problem with this sort of jackpot is that while such jackpots are generally randomly determined, the range of jackpot prizes can become known and can affect play. For example, play of gaming machines may drop off just after a jackpot is awarded because players perceive the chance of winning a jackpot is diminished shortly after a previous jackpot is awarded. Similarly, play may increase as a progress jackpot reaches a value near a known upper limit.
There is a need for an alternative technique for determining to award a jackpot to a player.